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Tim Battershell
Most people meeting Tim Battershell 'these days think that he's from a Core World, or possibly Naboo; but he is actually a native of Agamar who had to change his name and adopt a Core Wold accent and mannerisms after his brother-in-law comitted what the Sith (and Sith affiliated Imperials) considered a treasonable act in 137 ABY. Since that time, he has not allowed anyone to take any holo-images of him, the sole exceptions being while he is/was wearing full make-up for his performances as a Younglings' Conjuror and Illusionist. 'Family Background Tim is the only grandson of Evlyn Dodd (née Tabory) and the eldest of her two grandchildren. Evlyn was born (12 ABY) in the wreck of Outbound Flight (which had crashed on a then unknown world within a star cluster - which later became known as "The Redoubt" - in Chiss Ascendancy Space). In 22 ABY, the wreckage was detected by a Chiss survey ship at long range and (as part of a convoluted plan to deal with the threat of a piratical and slave-taking race known as the Vagaari) was visited by a Chiss-led Mission under Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano of the Fifth Ruling Family; which also included Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker (representing the Jedi Order) and a squad of Stormtroopers (under the command of Commander Chak Fel) from the Empire of the Hand. The wreckage was presumed to be composed of dead ships without living survivors, but Luke and Mara soon sensed that that was not the case. Making use of an untrained, wild-card, Force talent (probably a form of Alter Mind); Evlyn duped the entire party into following her (in small groups) into disguised turbolift cars; where the intention was to trap them in transit. Even years later, Evlyn felt bad about her actions, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that she had managed to deceive a pair of Master-level Jedi. Notwithstanding the hatred directed at Force-sensitives by the older survivors (in particular a clique led by Director Uliar and Councillors Keely and Tarkosa and their descendants) due to the attitude and actions of Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth; Evlyn used her fledgling talents to recover a comlink to issue a warning and call for assistance after Vagaari infiltrators attacked. She was encouraged to do so by her soon-to-be stepfather, Dean Jinzler, who was posing as a New Republic Diplomat as a means of visiting the place where his sister (Jedi Knight Lorana Jinzler) had died. After the survivors were evacuated to Empire of the Hand territory, Evlyn's mother (Rosemari) married Dean Jinzler. One wedding present was Dean's appointment as official New Republic representative to the Empire of the Hand, both on the strength of Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano's recommendation that he had acted exactly as a real Ambassador would have done and as a means of safeguarding Evlyn from reprisals due to her Force-sensitivity. It seems likely that Leia Organa Solo put the appointment forward through her political contacts after hearing about the situation from her brother, Luke. Luke and Mara stayed in touch with Evlyn and made sure she received regular updates of instructional material on Force techniques, Lightsaber construction and fighting styles and Jedi training; although Evlyn herself never attempted to train as a Jedi, she kept those materials safe. Even though Dean Jinzler's appointment lapsed with the incorporation of the Empire of the Hand into the Chiss Ascendancy (peacefully and by mutual agreement) at the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War, his relationship with the Fel family still cast a protective influence over Evlyn. However, political changes within the Chiss hierarchy towards the end of that conflict made a move back to Old Republic space seem attractive and the family migrated to Agamar. Evlyn fell in love with a fellow University student, Aurik Dodd, marrying him in 38 ABY at the conclusion of their studies. Their son (and only child - due to medical complications), Luke, was born in 45 ABY. Luke Dodd (apart from a noticeably 'green thumb', a 'green touch' and a way with animals) never showed any sign of Force-sensitivity. His career-path took him into the Military, specialising in Staff, Personnel and Logistics. He retired to Agamar in 90 ABY; marrying Erika Farlander and becomming a successful farmer. The couple had two children, Tim (born 96 ABY) and Evlyn-Mari (born 98 ABY). 'Personal History' 'Early Years' It quickly became apparent that the young Tim was far more interested in the (rather limited) collection of machinery on the farm than he was in the plants and livestock. His other besetting sin (in the eyes of his mother, who had to make sure he did his chores, came to meals and went to bed; to actually sleep; on time) started just after he learned to read. He would read anything, anywhere, at any time (even H'kig, or other, religious tracts, if nothing else was available). His father's collection of holomanuals (relics of his Imperial Naval Academy training) received so much attention that both parents thought that he would follow his father (and his mother's relative, Keyan Farlander) into the Military, but it was not to be. As Tim got old enough to use tools safely (and to scavenge scrap machinery from wherever he could find some) weird and wonderful constructions started to appear in and around the area set aside for Tim and his sister to play in. These were never thrown back on the scrapheap (where they had most likely come from) but were carefully dismantled and the pieces stored carefully away. Later, Tim started to add power units to his contraptions, sometimes putting something together that actually worked, but at others producing an object that made an impressively loud 'Bang' (with or without a cloud of smoke) and promptly disintegrated into more 'spare parts' than had gone into it in the first place! Evlyn-Mari's constant complaints that she couldn't have her friends come over to play (or to stay the night) for fear of them either tripping over the latest machine or being terrifed by the noise, accomplished what Tim's requests could not; and his tenth Lifeday present was a small, but quite capable, computer. Intended to curb Tim's mechanical experiments; it, unknown to his parents, came with a CAD program pre-installed! Thereafter, Tim was building in the daylight hours and was occupied with the computer at night. It did have something of the effect intended though, through reducing the need for the previous trial-and-error design methods it also severely reduced the incidence of 'Bangs' and disintegrations. Evlyn-Mari also became fast-friends with Leylia Sturm (a girl her own age who she had previously despised for having moved into the area from the "Big City"; a.k.a. Calna Muun, the Planetary Capital) where her father was an Inspector with the Agamar Security Force. Leylia was always walked over to the Dodd's farm by her eleven year-old brother Joph, who (at first) went home until it was time to walk his sister back; he, of course, knew Tim and while neither of them had any cause to dislike each other, they had not previously interacted much. That changed when Jopf got interested in one of Tim's safer and less noisy experiments (inspired by a holo-documentary on dare-devils who jumped off buildings and mountain ledges then floated fairly gently to ground under an arrangement of cords and fabric) and got talking to him. Pretty soon, Joph was also staying for the day (and/or overnight) when Leylia came visiting; and reciprocal arrangements were made for alternate weeks. Joph was very proud about his Dad always wearing a Blaster and occasionally taking one of the ASF's T-65s into space, while Tim really enjoyed Inspector Sturm's crime-solving tales. Inspector Sturm also loaned Tim books from his extensive collection, including a beginners' guide to Data Slicing. 'Later Childhood and Adolescence' Evlyn's husband, Auric, died (aged 96) in Tim's eleventh year. Despite repeated entreaties from the entire family, his grandmother refused to give up her independence and move into her son's household on the grounds that "I've been uprooted twice in my lifetime, and when I settled here I decided I would never move again". The family reluctantly accepted the robust 95 year-old's decision (for the time being!). At twelve, Tim discovered an old, encrypted, message file among his father's memorabilia and, being temporarily without a current project (a rarity) set to work to slice the encryption, which took six weeks. Presented with the decrypted file, his father proudly told Tim "That one took our experts and their specialist droids over a week to crack; you did well, son! Looks like you might have a knack for it!". Not long after Tim's thirteenth Lifeday, his grandmother, Evlyn, fell from a ladder while out collecting binka fruit and ingredients for mugruebe stew (a popular Agamarian meal); fortunate not to have broken any bones, she was nevertheless confined to the lower floor of her home for nearly a year. Tim, often accompanied by Joph, visited her every other day to bring supplies, fetch and carry from the upstairs rooms and generally keep the place in order. As both were too young to drive a landspeeder, the round trip took some three hours by Agamarian Beast-drawn cart and involved crossing one of the planet's many natural land-bridges. An additional hazard was posed by a marked increase in the numbers of repulsorcraft slaloming through the binka forests at unprecedentedly high speeds, accompanied by an impressive number of (thus far, non fatal) crashes. While 'running the forest' had always been a common sport for adolescent and young-adult Agarmarians, speeds had previously been much lower and the number of crashes less, probably due to the repulsorcraft being owned by their drivers, while the recent trend was for the drivers to use stolen (or reportedly stolen) vehicles. 'Inventor' After the sixth near-miss in as many trips, Tim turned his mind to the problem, dusted off his old experimental research into the dare-devils' cord-and-fabric device, built prototypes for himself and Joph and married them to fairly low-powered thruster units to create what he christened the "Thrust-Sailer". While still well below repulsorcraft speeds, these (once controlling them had been mastered, with a few bruises for each boy as motivation to learn quicker) were far faster than any cart, and enabled straight-line travel; cutting the trip time by over two thirds and lifting the boys safely over the top of the forest. When informed of this development, the Agamarian Council were naturally horrified and tried to impose a ban. Tim and Joph (backed by their respective fathers) argued their own cause (bolstered by the fact that a cart-driver had been killed by an out-of-control repulsorcraft only a few days before the hearing); and, after a demonstration by Tim of deliberately cutting his thruster adrift in mid-flight and still bringing himself in for a safe, walking-speed, landing; managed to get the ban rescinded. This little victory sparked an interest in "Thrust-Sailers" with a reputable manufacturer purchasing, refining and developing the design, and several clubs being set up. Possibly as a side-effect, although Tim always acknowledged that the fatality would have had a considerable dampening effect; the 'running the forest' activity declined sharply to finish at well below its historical level. Perhaps thinking back to her own wild ride in one of Outbound Flight's turbolift cars while helping Luke Skywalker, Evlyn was more philosophical, "If they break their necks, they break their necks", she was once heard to remark, "but somehow I doubt that either of them ever will!". Joph had always been inclined towards a career in Law Enforcement, preferably alongside his father in the ASF, while Tim had been undecided, certainly up until he had sliced that encrypted file. Joph's father pointed out that a qualification in Computers and Computer Systems offered a wide variety of well paid jobs, and with remote linking, would not necessarily even involve leaving Agamar. Recognising good advice when he heard it, Tim drew up a planned assault on the educational qualifications that he would need and both boys spent the next six years in hard study; punctuated by visits to help out Evlyn, still stubbornly (like a true-born Agamarian) refusing to move, although it was obvious, even to her, that she was declining year-by-year. In this caregiving, the boys were soon joined by Evlyn-Mari and Leylia, both of whom had learned to "Thrust-Sail" for that specific purpose. 'University' 116 ABY was a bad year for both families. First Evlyn Dodd died in her sleep at the ripe old age of 104, then Leylia Sturm drowned in the Bil Da'Gari ocean (she had apparently done a high dive at a different place then usual and knocked herself unconscious on a rock; no one in her party noticing her floating facedown in the water until it was too late for her to be revived). Then, and quite possibly triggered by the deaths of her grandmother and closest friend, Evlyn-Mari took up with a local ne'er-do-well called Cade Lott, promptly falling pregnant; which left her with little option but marriage in traditional Agamarian Society. Asked to give a word picture of his brother-in-law years later, Tim succinctly replied, "Think of a young Han Solo, without any of the virtues or redeeming qualities!". However, that was also the year that Tim and Joph were able to see each other full-time again, Tim starting at the University and Joph in his second year at the ASF Academy. At that time The University of Agamar and The Agamar Security Force Training Academy were located next door to each other, and the (unwritten, but always honoured) arrangement was that the Students and Faculty of one could use the facilities of the other at any time outside of classes. So it was that Tim was taught to handle a Blaster safely and effectively by an ASF Instructor and Joph could join Tim in the University's "Hall of Arms" for swordfighting training by Tapani and Adumari Blades-Masters, as well as learning the almost lost arts of Durasteel Foil, Epee and Saber. Tim and Joph became recognised as highly competent with all those weapons and fighting styles, with the sole exception of the Adumari Blastsword, due to both finding the proper grip for it an extremely awkward one to manage. Both took Piloting and Starship Maintenence courses, again courtesy of the ASF. The highly cosmopolitan nature of the University was almost entirely due to its Xenoarchaeology Department, which had had a high reputation as far back as the Old Republic era. Although uninformed snobs might consider a Degree from Coruscant or another Core World of greater importance, every Xenoarchaeologist knew the truth; Students who wished only to teach the subject or write about it went to one or another of the Core Worlds' Universities; Students came to The University of Agamar to get their appendages dirty actually doing Xenoarchaeology; perhaps with the chance of making a major find and/or resolving an ancient mystery. Tim took time to attend some of the lectures, mainly to better understand the methodology and the reasoning process, but ending up with something of a fascination with the subject (if only on an amateur basis); and, of course, he tried to read his way through anything and everything in the University's vast Library! However, his workload and the situation at home prevented him accepting an invitation to become President of the University "Thrust-Sailer" club. Despite the situation with their families, both Tim and Joph graduated with distinction, Joph taking his place in the ranks of Agamar's finest, Tim picking up Degrees in Computer Programming and Computer Systems, then landing a job as Systems' Analyst at a high profile Security Firm. 'Security Systems' Analyst' Nine months after Tim started working at Agamar Security Consultants, Cade Lott abandoned Evlyn-Mari and her two children (Leylia - named in memory of her best friend - then aged eight and Jorad - named after the kindly great-great-uncle that Evlyn-Mari had never met, but had heard so much about from her grandmother - then aged six). The children were, of course, deeply affected by their father's sudden departure; everyone else in the family much less so; Cade's only contribution to life on the farm having been to eat the produce! Tim, to help his sister out, took on a more active role in the children's lives, providing them with a male role-model and becoming something of a surrogate father figure to them; their acting-out slowly abated over the next three years. In 131 ABY, Luke and Erika finally felt able to take a (long-delayed) second honeymoon, but their ship never arrived at its destination. No wreckage was found, despite an extensive search (including unofficial involvement by ASF ships and personnel) and the presumed loss was classed as 'unexplained'. Once again, Tim devoted extra time to the children in order to cushion the emotional impact. A rash of apparently inexplicable burglaries hit properties protected by client-customised Agamar Security Consultants' equipment in 133 ABY, while the occupants were temporarily off-planet; leaving no trace of how they had occurred. Even the ASF (called in because of the value of the items stolen and the social position of the dwellings' owners) was unable to make headway on the cases; other than to find that the systems had all been installed within the past year-and-a-half. Briefed first by Joph (who had rapidly risen to the rank of Lieutenant) and then by his father, now Assistant Director, Tim spent some hours puzzling over the mystery before concluding that the only feature that the systems had in common was the ROM chip in the arm/disarm keypads, which arrived from the manufacturers blank and had the coding burned into them in the high-security area of the head office. Hours of tedious line-by-line comparison of the installed coding against a copy of the master file also, frustratingly, failed to detect any abnormality. Driven by concerns over pending litigation, rapidly falling liquid cash reserves and a slump in the firm's market value, Tim finally turned to the ROM chips themselves; and there he found it! Just twenty lines of superlatively-written additional code in a reserved sector of the current batch of chips (flagged as corrupted so that automatic scans would ignore it and its contents). The addition monitored the input from the keypad and when it detected a specific non-standard passcode, caused the genuine, user-set, passcode to be displayed; it also suppressed the fact that the non-standard code had even been entered. Aware that someone in the firm would have to be involved. Tim immediately took his findings to Assistant Director Sturm who called in the CEO for an ostensible carpeting about the lack of suggestions being put forward. The three of them worked out a plan, based on the fact that only three possible dwellings remained to be targeted and two of them were constantly occupied by virtually housebound residents, to install a specially rigged ROM chip in the third, the owners being requested by ASF to give out the information that they had to go off-world suddenly. This worked like a charm, the burglars came, input their special code (unaware that that action also now triggered a silent alarm to waiting ASF units) and began their depredations; only to be surprised and trapped by the ASF. Joph led the ground operation, receiving a grazing Blaster-burn to his left shoulder in a shoot-out with what appeared to be the gang's leader. Once in custody, inspired play-acting (led by a giant of an ASF Officer, nicknamed "Mando" for his intimidating height and bulk) convinced one of the gang to roll-over on his erstwhile partners, producing something of a domino-effect. By daylight all of the perpetrators; including the 'inside man' (a purchasing clerk) were in ASF hands, along with a good many of the stolen items from the most recent thefts. Joph was promoted directly to Inspector and his father was guaranteed promotion to ASF Director when the incumbent retired in a couple of months time. Tim, typically, sent Joph a handmade booklet, containing illustrations culled from ASF training manuals, entitled "How to Duck"! Unfortunately the damage had been done and Agamar Security Consultants was forced to cease trading, however Tim was the last person to be taken off the payroll (about 25 milliseconds after the CEO). 'The Majyk One' Tim at least now had the time (or had now run out of excuses for not so doing) to visit the Family's Attorney. The issues on the agenda were the farm, his grandmother's house and a large old locked box that his grandmother had bequeathed especially to him. The first two issues had already been decided upon jointly by Tim and Evlyn-Mari (namely that Cade Lott should not be permitted to get his hands on any of the family's assets) and so were quickly settled. Then Tim turned to the mysterious old box, which opened with one of his grandmother's keys. Inside were rack upon rack of Datacards, static holograms and a few genuine flimsi letters in unfamiliar hands; all under a large, thick, envelope addressed to him in his grandmother's handwriting. Given privacy to read the very long handwritten letter inside, Tim discovered that it contained all the details of his grandmother's early life, her encounter with the Masters Skywalker and an explanation for all the other items, as being all the Jedi Training Holos, extracts from the New Jedi Order's Archives and keepsakes that the Masters Skywalker had sent to Evlyn over the years. The letter ended: "Your father did not have the talent, except perhaps in a very mild form, and I do not know if it will ever manifest itself in you. Part of me hopes that it never will, because it can be a heavy burden at times. However my dreams lately have been troubled by images of a spreading darkness, even reaching out to touch peaceful, insignificant, Agamar. My fear is that the Light will, once again, be extinguished in most of the Galaxy; so this box is in the nature of a Trust for the future, something that will help the Light to grow brighter. If you use it at all, I pray that you use it wisely; otherwise either pass it down through your, or your sister's family line, or hand it to those who can make best use of it when the Light starts to return. The first Datacard, the one marked 'Tabory' is a holorecording of me relating the information in this letter; I want whoever receives the contents of this box to look me in the eye!. Luke Skywalker sent me the enclosed pendant as a keepsake, I want you to retain it, and if my fears of darkness become reality, to wear it as a precaution at all times. If you do develop the talent, it will keep you safe from detection by those who wield dark and terrible powers". Having slipped the pendant over his head and fed it down inside his clothing, Tim put everything back as it had been and relocked the box. He then asked the Attorney to hold the box in safekeeping, with the key included in the lock-box that held his mother's jewellery; leaving the Attorney's office with a great deal to think about. How had his grandmother predicted back then what the holonews was now reporting day-by-day, and had come upon the Galaxy without any warning at all? Later that day, Tim received a Comm from Director Sturm, asking him to meet a prospective new employer at his hotel the following morning. Tim arrived to be greeted by an elderly-looking Human who introduced himself as "The Great Prestorious; Illusionist" (the word 'extraordinaire' wasn't spoken, but came through loud and clear all the same!) who was now without a pilot; doubling, or tripling, as the Illusionist's Assistant and General Factotum. The tinkerer, inventor and puzzle-solver in Tim had always had a general curiosity about 'how it was done' and here he was being offered a chance not only to observe an obvious Master of the craft at close-quarters but to get his hands on the apparatus as well! Somehow the conversation turned to Practical Jokes, another (if entirely theoretical) interest of his since the antics on 'Hidden Holocam' had set him laughing helplessly; and soon the two were busily plotting out the perfect Practical Joke! However, it was when Tim saw Prestorious' ship that he realised that he simply couldn't turn down this job. "Life's Illusion" seemed to be calling to him. In view of later events it could be asked, was it the ship or was it the Force? The years of travelling with Prestorious taught Tim many new skills. In many ways it was a routine, perhaps even boring lifestyle, but there were always new places to see and new audiences to please. In the longer hyperspace transits (also if the schedule took the show between two planets in the same System) Prestorious taught Tim lock-picking, sleight-of-hand skills (with both of them feeling very proud the first time Tim managed to palm an object right under Prestorious' nose and not have the move detected), card tricks and the less complicated Illusions. He also learned ventriloquism after a quartet of inept Weequay had managed to deceive their way aboard with the intention of pirating "Life's Illusion", and Prestorious used that skill and precise mimicry to get them fighting each other, before Tim sprayed the struggling group with Stun-bolts: although Tim never showed much ability at mimicking others. Where he did shine (which became a nice little sideline) was in entertaining younglings under the stage name 'The Majyk One' (the misspelling quite deliberate and intended to stick in beings' minds). Assigning all the apparatus in his routine a character and an individual voice, Tim usually began the act with each piece of apparatus introducing itself (the younglings being amazed at objects talking to them, and'' talking back to the entertainer!) before starting on the main tricks and illusions. Sometimes referred to, but never allowed to speak or be quoted was an additional character called '' 'fresher, the reason for the embargo being (as Tim would then apologetically confide to the audience) "He's far too rude"! In 137 ABY the darkness did, indeed, reach out to touch Agamar. Emperor-in-exile Roan Fel selected the planet as a meeting-place to forge an alliance with the remnants of the Jedi under Jedi Master K'Kruhk, only the meeting became known to the Sith/Imperial faction. A Fel loyalist travelled to Agamar, parked her Starfighter on the Dodd farm (paying a recently returned Cade Lott for hiding it and the loan of local clothing and a riding Beast, under the impression that he was the owner) and went into Calna Muun to warn the Emperor. He and K'Kruhk escaped, but Cade was arrested by the Sith/Imperials and was never seen again. Fortunately, Evlyn-Mari had decamped to the Sturms' house the previous evening after Cade had become drunk and started threatening her during a violent row, but they didn't feel safe even after all the factions left. Tim was to learn later that they had been smuggled off-planet by Joph, prior to travelling under false identities to a remote and undisclosed world. In view of the possibility that there was (or would be) a price on his head, Tim changed his family name to Battershell and started (coached by Prestorious) using a Core World accent and mannerisms in public. This peaceful and interesting phase of Tim's life came to an abrupt end in 138 ABY when The Great Prestorious was shot and killed in mid-performance by a Sith-affiliated, Rodian, Bounty Hunter who had been completely deluded by the nature and quality of the Illusions into thinking that Prestorious was a covert Jedi during the part of Prestorious' act where he gave the appearance of being able to levitate objects (including himself) just as a Jedi (or Sith) could. Tim had warned Prestorious that appearing to have Jedi powers was risky; but Prestorious would not give up the routine, relying instead on submitting himself for examination by as senior a Sith as he could find in the locality to prove he was not in the least Force-sensitive. On the fatal day, there were junior members of the Sith in the audience (an advance party to secure the venue for a private evening performance for their superior, who although knowing that it was all artful Illusion, nevertheless greatly wanted to see if he could spot how the Illusions were brought off) who were 'in the know' and who promptly subdued the unfortunate Rodian and dragged him away to face their Master's wrath. Watching on a monitor backstage (in charge of making sure that the various repulsor units operated at the right output and the right time, Tim saw Prestorious fall with half his chest blown away and went into a white-hot rage at the death of his friend and mentor. In the grip of this, he felt something open up inside of him. The rapid intervention of the Sith minions as rapidly cooled Tim's anger, but the casual murder of an honourable, decent and generous man left him in deep shock. He was barely able to instruct the show's promoter that all future performances would have to be cancelled as the routine required both a highly skilled performer as well as the services of a fully trained assistant and Tim did not have either the skills or the assistant. The next morning, having collapsed at his monitoring station overnight, Tim oversaw the dismantling of the equipment and its safe transport back to "Life's Illusion", where he stored it securely and waited to be told what would happen next. It turned out that Prestorious had no living family of any kind and so had left all his assets to "Whoever is my assistant when I die", a highly unusual, but perfectly legal stipulation; so, after Prestorious's funeral (thankfully not attended by any obvious Sith), Tim took off in "Life's Illusion" for Agamar with a few stops on the way to put various trained creatures, used in the performances, into good homes; retaining only the three Chitliks that he had procured and trained for his Younglings' shows. During this circuitous voyage, the Galaxy reverberated with the news that Darth Krayt had been killed (this time for good) by Cade Skywalker and that the remaining Sith were in full retreat. 'Consultant to the ASF' "Life's Illusion" was safely berthed in an enclosed hangar. Tim was unwilling to paint over Prestorious' Masterpiece, or to let anyone discover that the dilapidation was, actually, merely paint; and he also did not want to receive numerous complaints about "that decrepit hunk of unspaceworthy junk" from the Spaceport Authorities or owners of the flash luxury Space Yachts that were parked along the Flightline (although the owners' superior attitudes severely tempted him to challenge them all to a race; one which he, knowing his ship, was certain that they would all loose!). Although no longer having any need to work (Prestorious' bequest having included access to bank accounts containing well over three-quarters of a billion Credits, (a further suggestion to Tim's way of thinking that, when taken with Prestorious' consummate skill and artistry, he had not always played the comparatively backrocket systems but had, in fact, once been a notable Core Worlds' performer), Tim accepted a position as Technical Consultant to the Agamar Security Force in 140 ABY; his duties mainly consisting of Slicing high-end encryption systems that ASF's own staff were having difficulty with. With time still on his hands, he gave occasional guest-lectures on Slicing techniques at the ASF Academy; which paved the way for him to learn advanced Starship Piloting and Maintenance/Repair skills from the ASF Instructors and ASF's own mechanics. At the end of these, he was considered competent to repair any Starship System from the Hyperdrive downwards. During this period, he was saddened to learn (from a smuggled, untraceable, heavily encrypted, Datacard) that his sister, Evlyn-Mari, had died in an airspeeder crash. In counterpoint, though, Leylia and Jorad reported that they were both very happily married (wherever they were) and now had children of their own; but were still too scared of the Sith Remnant and their Bounty Hunters to come out of hiding. And, as always, any time left over was spent reading his way though the University Library! One dirty and almost coverless ancient book caught his eye one day, as it was waiting to be fed into the recycler. It was titled "Deep Space Survey and Mapping - an Autobiographical History", published several centuries before (and probably a reprint of a much earlier volume). On impulse, Tim asked permission to take it away with him, which was granted. The book proved to be a compilation of accounts by Survey Pilots active during the boom years of Galactic Colonisation. One (very well written) example gave a detailed description of something called a 'forced orbit'. Checking the Library's main Database failed to even find the term, nor had the ASF instructors or senior pilots ever heard of it. Intrigued, Tim hired some simulator time, first for a standard ASF Patrol-class ship, later for a YT-1300 (as the nearest simulation match he could find to a DeepWater-class) and spent several pleasant hours discovering that the old-time Spacer who had written that account had indeed known what he was talking about! He found, too, that it offered some intrigueing tactical possibilities for a ship being chased. 'Behind the Scenes' Tim Battershell is the alter-ego of a real-life person used in the "Shadow War - Times End" RPG game.